Oborne, described by Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher as "a world renowned writer and commentator", will begin writing a column for the paper in September. He has been with the Mail for four years.

Though Oborne and I have had our disagreements in the past - not least because of my friendship with, and support for, Alastair Campbell - I regard him as one of the most effective of political columnists. He is far from a typecast Tory.

He was acutely critical of the New Labour project but has not shied away from criticising the Conservative leadership too.

He has attacked the United States as being Britain's "great enemy" and was co-author of a pamphlet about the influence of the pro-Israeli lobby in Britain that questioned the covert nature of its funding. He has also defended the human rights act.

Oborne has branched out in recent years from writing to broadcasting, presenting hard-hitting documentaries for Channel 4, including one called Why politicians can't tell the truth and another that questioned Gordon Brown's fitness for office.

He is a noted critic of Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, and has called for military intervention in a pamphlet entitled A moral duty to act there.

A lover of cricket, and no mean man with the bat (I've seen him play), he also wrote an award-winning biography of the cricketer Basil D'Oliveira, whose selection for England to tour South Africa in 1968 prompted its apartheid leaders to cancel the tour.